1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to multi-layer system-on-chip (SoC) module structures and, more particularly, to a multi-layer SoC module structure applicable to SoCs.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic products play an important role in our daily lives and have a bigger market share each year. In order to grab consumers' attention and claim an early market share, it is necessary for manufacturers to continuously develop a variety of electronic products that suit consumers' habit of use. More importantly, product development must be completed in a short time frame.
In an attempt to shorten product development cycles and reduce costs, it is common practice for SoC modules in different products to be designed with basic structures that have the same specifications. For instance, the SoC-based fundamental-frequency components of portable communication products of different models may use elements having the same specifications, such as microcontrollers, digital signal processors, buses, digital-analog converters, codecs, modulators, and so on. After the basic structures are selected, system designers design and add extended functions to the basic structures according to market needs and cost considerations, so as to form portable communication products with different powers.
During the aforesaid development and design stages of SoC modules, system designers may select the basic structures on their own or use the basic structures provided by manufacturers. It is also possible to introduce silicon intellectual property from external design teams. In either case, however, the designed SoC modules must be fabricated and verified. Therefore, even though system designers have participated in the entire design process, the subsequent fabrication and verification still require high labor costs.
If the design process can be further extended into and integrated with fabrication and verification, that is, if certain elements of a packaged SoC modules are pre-fabricated and verified products, then system designers will be allowed to focus only on the design, fabrication, and verification of those elements with the additional extended functions. Thus, the time required for developing and testing SoC modules can be significantly shortened, and design errors are minimized, thereby lowering the development costs. Moreover, as consumers strongly prefer compact electronic products, with the volume of the SoC module effectively reduced, the finished electronic products are far more likely to satisfy consumers.